If you’re thinking of selling, you’ll likely connect with people who want to help. Some will be agents and some will be investors. Check out this blog post to read about 3 ways to tell real estate agents and investors apart in Washington, DC, and help you understand why you might want to work with one versus the other…

Thinking about selling your house? You might be approached by a bunch of different people who all offer to help you sell. But not everyone who offers to help will help in the same way. Some are real estate agents, other are real estate investors and they’ll help you in different ways. Here are 3 ways to tell real estate agents and investors apart in Washington, DC.

The easiest way to tell agents from investors is to ask what they are going to do with your house – list it or buy it. A real estate agent will list your house on a listing service and they’ll try to find a buyer. They might need to show it to several people in order to find one buyer.

The next way to tell an agent apart from an investor is to ask about their timeline to buy. An agent won’t know because they have to find the buyer first. In many cases, they might be looking at 3-12 months during which they’ll show the house to multiple potential buyers.

An investor, though, will know exactly how long it will take to buy your house since they’re the ones who will buy it. They will have an exact timeline (which could depend on you and how quickly you want to sell).

This one is crucial! An agent makes their money when they find a buyer and then you have to pay them a commission on the house (which could be somewhere around 6% of the sale price… or $6,000 on a $100,000 house).

An investor, however, isn’t listing your house so there aren’t any commissions. That’s because an investor will make money by either renting the house to a tenant or fixing up the house and selling it… so they make their money in a different way.

There are other ways to tell an agent or investor apart. The best thing to do is just ask… they’ll tell you!

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